Palmer: Platform is a work in progress

Vaughn Palmer, Vancouver Sun05.29.2012

Monday’s release, issued by Conservative MLA John van Dongen, complained about Clark’s decision to establish another provincial holiday. “Cost of family day too high,” it complained, atop a text that cited the estimated $1,135 additional cost to the average small business.

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VICTORIA- For a political party operating on a shoestring, the B.C. Conservatives have been making the most of the simple press release as a way of zinging the governing B.C. Liberals on a regular basis.

“Christy Clark is letting down B.C. by skipping Western premiers’ meeting,” was Tuesday’s offering, accusing the premier of “playing hooky” from the day’s gathering of western leaders in Edmonton.

“Working with the other western provinces is a key part of the job as premier — and Premier Clark has much to learn from them,” said Conservative leader John Cummins. “B.C. has the worst unemployment rate in the west, and our families pay the highest taxes.”

Monday’s release, issued by Conservative MLA John van Dongen, complained about Clark’s decision to establish another provincial holiday. “Cost of family day too high,” it complained, atop a text that cited the estimated $1,135 additional cost to the average small business.

Last week’s timely selection included, “Liberal mismanagement is running BC Hydro into the ground,” and “Don’t sell the liquor distribution branch if it means higher prices for consumers.”

So it goes most days with Cummins and his nascent team. The prime target is the B.C. Liberals, rarely the NDP. The position being staked, more often than not, is in direct opposition to whatever ground the governing party is occupying today.

Active as the Conservatives are in trying to insert themselves into the news cycle, their platform remains very much a work in progress, as I discovered during a recent interview with Cummins on Voice of B.C. on Shaw TV.

John Cummins on restricting raw log exports: “I think it’s an issue that we have to look carefully at and determine whether or not we might as well leave them standing, if we can’t do the work here. It’s a question that our policy people are looking at, but I can’t give you a definitive answer on that one today.”

Cummins, the former school teacher, on the dispute with the B.C. Teachers’ Federation: “I was involved in the BCTF, actually, as a teacher when they unionized. I was opposed to that. The government has to set the parameters for these negotiations. Those should be the wages and the benefits and the usual issues for industrial unions. I don’t think that negotiations should be going into issues that directly influence instruction in the classroom.”

Even when he does take a stand, it raises additional questions. Would he eliminate the coming tolls on the expanded Port Mann Bridge?

“Well, I think that’s something you’d seriously have to look at ... We pay big-time in this province, especially on the Lower Mainland. We pay the highest gas taxes of any jurisdiction in Canada. Then on top of this we’re going to pay a $1,500 [a year] bridge toll to get to work, if we live in Surrey or Langley or Chilliwack? It just doesn’t make any sense.”

Left dangling after that answer was any explanation for how the Langley-based Cummins would handle the $3.3-billion debt associated with the project. The government proposes to retire the debt with the estimated $180-million-a-year-and-climbing revenue from the tolls.

Another very loose end in the Cummins platform involves one of his largest and earliest promises, to eliminate the carbon tax.

“It penalizes commuters,” he says, listing the victims of what he regards as a hurtful tax. “It penalizes people who live in the north ... It penalizes businesses that are trying to operate in that part of the world, as well. It’s got to go. It just doesn’t help to grow the economy and create jobs, especially in rural British Columbia.”

Nobody likes taxes. But as Opposition leader Adrian Dix noted recently when he was asked for a pledge to get rid of the carbon tax, anyone calling for that should explain how to fill the resulting $1.2-billion hole in provincial revenues.

How would Cummins respond to the $1.2-billion challenge? “We need to cut spending,” he replied. “We have to get spending under control in this province. Let’s not forget that in B.C., when you add all these taxes together — the carbon tax, medical services premiums, all of these things — the average family pays more taxes here than they do in any province west of Quebec.”

Cut spending by $1.2 billion? In program terms, that’s like eliminating the entire budget for Pharmacare or the Ministry of Children and Family Development. The amount is double what the province spends on adults with developmental disabilities and more than the combined budgets for the resource ministries.

So, no small order. But Cummins insists the goal is entirely manageable. “We’ll be starting that costing process next fall, and by the time that election rolls around, our platform will be fully costed.”

And if he’s promising to cut the carbon tax or any other tax, the public will also be told what he’s going to cut in terms of spending? “Absolutely.”

Much like the New Democrats, the Conservatives are aiming to release a fully costed election platform after the February provincial budget and before the mid-April start of the election campaign. Keep your calculators at the ready.

vpalmer@vancouversun.com

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Palmer: Platform is a work in progress

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